Category: Wedding

I have been meaning to blog about my amazing wedding (aka The Best Day Ever) to my best friend, my husband, since before I actually got married. I had planned to blog about all of the DIY stuff that I did to get ready and save money for the wedding. In fact, a couple of my DIY things that I made for my own wedding inspired a new wedding business. More on that later…I have been waiting for the photograph’s, then once I got them, I was recovering from a second ankle surgery. I’m finally on the mend and so excited to share the story of our “Best Day Ever”.

We got married at Mt. Princeton Hot Springs in Nathrop, Colorado on Saturday, October 24, 2015 at 4 pm in the afternoon. It was a beautiful afternoon. The sun was shinning bright and the snow capped mountains made it feel magical out. There was so much love surrounding us that day (and all weekend) that we felt like nothing else in the world mattered, except the love that we shared with our family and friends that weekend.

A little less than a year before our wedding date, I fell on the ice and broke my left ankle in two places. I had to wear a cast and be non-weight bearing for about 3 months, then I started physical therapy. About 5 weeks into physical therapy, I wasn’t getting better and actually was having much more pain. After going back to the doctor and finally getting a CT Scan it was determined that the bone wasn’t healing and I needed surgery to basically screw my bones together. I had that done in May and started the recovery process all over.

Fast forward to October. I’m in and out of the boot, did another round of physical therapy and still was having a ton of pain and not able to walk well. Another trip to the doctor and finally an MRI determined that I had a torn ligament, stretched tendon and some cartilage damage. This all needed to be repaired. It was way too close to our wedding date for me to under go another surgery. So instead, I opted for a cortisone shot and alternating between wearing the AirCast boot and normal shoes. The weekend of the wedding, I was in the boot more than normal shoes. I wanted to be able to walk down the aisle on my own. Which, thankfully, I was able to do, as my beautiful friend, Cyndee, sang “One Thousand Years” by Christina Perry. That song was perfect to walk down the aisle toward my future.

Walking down the aisle with blue shoes on!

We planned our wedding ourselves and I definitely knew the theme I wanted and how I wanted the day to play out. The theme was “Vintage Elegance”. I shopped many thrift and antique stores to find the perfect decor, linens and serving dishes all at bargain prices. We were on a pretty tight budget since I had been injured most of the year and not able to work all that much. Amazingly, being very resourceful, we were able to pull off a very elegant wedding for more than 100 people for much less than the average wedding costs these days. I did do a lot of the “work” myself with the help of my fabulous friends.

I made the boutonniere’s, corsages, my brides maid’s bridal bouquet and my bridal bouquet. I used vintage buttons and brooches for everything I made. My bouquet was very special to me. I used my Nana’s costume jewelry that she had given to me a few years before she passed away. She was a florist her entire professional life, so I know she would have loved how it turned out. Every time I look at it, even now, I think of her and smile. I also inherited her “gold tooth” and wanted to incorporate that into the day somehow. I put it in an organza bag and pinned it to the underside of my dress. My friends who were in my cabin with me getting ready found that pretty funny. I, on the other hand, couldn’t contain my tears. I so wish she could have been there to see me marry the man of my dreams. A man she loved very much too.

My beautiful bridal bouquet that I made out of vintage brooches and buttons!The groom’s boutonniere that I made out of vintage buttons.Bridal corsages that I made out of silk flowers, pearls, vintage & new brooches, lace and ribbon.Attendant boutonniere.My Nana’s gold tooth that I pinned to my dress!

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It was very important to us that our wedding was a family affair. We don’t live near any of our families and don’t get to see them nearly enough. Instead of having our friends stand up for us, we asked our niece and nephews to be our attendants. Their ages range from 4 years old to 12. None of them had ever been in a wedding before, so it was pretty exciting for them. They all did a great job and (I think) had fun. The location of our wedding is a resort hot springs with cabins and hotel like rooms. All of the kids stayed in cabins and really enjoyed the cabin stay along with swimming in the warm pools. Even though it was cooler out, the water was amazing. My husband and I are both avid hot springers and we love to soak. We had been to many hot springs during our courtship but Mt. Princeton Hot Springs is by far our most favorite here in Colorado. We are planning an anniversary trip back up there for our first anniversary!

Ring Bearer’s carrying an Irish Vowing stone & cute sign.

I have so much more to share about our wedding. I will be posting more photograph’s and more information about how I made and planned everything so that we and our guests had the best time ever on the best day ever!

I have been looking for and interviewing for part time marketing jobs and was a final candidate for two that I was really excited about. I could have seen myself doing really well at either of them. I was feeling very confident and fairly certain that I was going to have to make a choice when I was offered them both. So you can imagine my disappointment and how rejected I felt when I wasn’t offered either of them!

I could have really gone down a rat hole and been super depressed over this, however, I chose to see the blessing and opportunity in this situation instead. At the time I was interviewing and trying to come up with a way to start a new job, get married, go on a honeymoon but still be “available and effective” in my new job. That was extremely stressful for me and not very realistic. Now without the stress of a new job, I can get married, really enjoy my day with my husband and enjoy all of my guests who are coming from afar to celebrate with us and then take a fabulous honeymoon without any guilt of having just started a new job and needing time off right away. I was very honest about the time off I would need while I was interviewing. I’m not sure if that played a part in their decision to not hire me. It may have. It doesn’t really matter though. What matters is now I can be present and really enjoy my time off.

I will continue my search for the perfect marketing or communications job for me when I return from my honeymoon. I feel there will be more opportunities available for me when I can fully devote my time and energy to the job at hand, which will be finding the perfect position that will be a perfect fit for me this time around. So even though I felt rejected for a few minutes after each call. It was short lived and actually has allowed me to really think about what I want for myself and to develop a better plan for the type of work I want to do and how I want to spend my time while I’m working in the future. That’s pretty amazing in my eyes!

Weight – Day 23 – 240+/-, Day 24 237 with the weight on, Day 25 237 with the cast on.

Calories – Day 23 355.5, Day 24 466, Day 25 578 – I was more hungry yesterday, so I ate a little more veggies.

I’m actually starting day 26 today but I’ll write about today later this evening or tomorrow.

The program is actually getting much easier for me. I’m used to eating twice a day and for the most part don’t feel hungry. I find that if I wait too long to eat lunch or too long between lunch and dinner then I am hungrier than normal.

The other thing I have figured out is that I need to drink much more water during the day than I ever did before. I’m maintaining about 80 oz of liquids (breakfast tea, herbal tea, water and bubbly water). I have cut diet coke, juices and Splenda (that was hard for me) completely. I don’t miss diet coke or the other sugary drinks that I used to drink at all. Now, when I’m thirsty, I grab water or an herbal tea to quench my thirst. It’s working and I am really loving the herbal tea. In fact, we are so low on herbal tea, that we are going to make a trip to Celestial Seasonings soon to stock up again. I love Celestial Seasonings tea. It makes me very happy!

I wanted to talk about why I decided to do this very strict 40 day program. Before I started this program I went to the doctor to get some blood work done and then I went to the NutriMost doctor and had a Body scan and NRF (NutriMost Resonant Frequency) hand scan done. I wasn’t surprised by what the two scans showed. But they did scare me enough to finally take my health seriously and do something about my weight once and for all. I know that by losing even 10% of my body fat is a huge help to my health over all.

Basically, the blood tests, the body scan and the hand scan all showed a similar but scary picture. The blood tests showed that my bad cholesterol was extremely high (377), my blood pressure was 140/90 – way too high. My general practitioner wanted to put me on blood pressure and cholesterol medicine. I talked him into giving me 3 months to try to lower both with diet and exercise. He agreed, but was concerned because I was also showed to be “pre-diabetic”. I think that was what really scared me the most. Especially if I could reverse that diagnosis by losing some weight and cutting sugar out of my diet.

Then the next week, I went to the NutriMost doctor after hearing a radio advertisement. I thought it was just another get thin fast gimmick, but when I went in and listened to the Dr. give his talk and got the scans done, I changed my mind quickly.

After having the body and hand scan done, these were my results:

My weight was 251. 6 pounds – about 15 pounds heavier than my scale at home said. That scale got thrown away the very same day!

My body fat was 50.2% – really high! My BMI (Body Mass Index) was 39.4 – bascially telling me what I already knew…I’m obese. Not quite at the end of the obese bar, but far enough.

My Body Water was 36.4% – basically telling me I’m dehydrated. Not just thirsty, but my cells were dehydrated.

My Visceral Fat (the fat that surrounds your organs) was 14 out of 15. That is not good, especially since I carry most of my weight in my stomach area. Meaning all of my important organs were surrounded by a large amount of fat. That means my liver was most likely “fatty”, my kidneys, my heart, my stomach, my spleen and my intestines were all surrounded by a large amount of fat. This was a wake-up call because having a large amount of visceral fat can lead to heart disease, kidney problems and many more health problems that I definitely don’t want now or ever!

The most shocking thing that came out of these scans was my Metabolic age. The scan only goes up to 90 years and that’s what I measured at. I could actually have a much older metabolic age since the scan only goes to 90. So that isn’t an accurate measurement. But it explains why I feel fatigued and “old” more than not. I haven’t been able to get scanned again with my cast on, but I am confident when I get scanned again, all of these numbers are going to be lower. By how much I don’t know, but even a small decrease will make me happy. I will post those numbers when I’m able to get scanned – hopefully next week or the following week once I get a walking boot.

Seeing the numbers and understanding what they really mean, are what pushed me to do something. The fact that I’m getting married in October was a motivator also, but really the health aspect of the reports was more motivating than just looking good in my wedding dress. I want to get married and then be healthy to live the best life I possibly can with my new husband. We have big plans and being fat and unhealthy doesn’t fit into those plans. So this is my opportunity to make huge changes for now and forever. I’m learning about portion sizes, that sugar is evil, and that meals can be tasty without a ton of fat or carbs in them. I also learned that I actually like to drink water. I used to say I don’t like to drink water and would grab a diet coke instead. I know I’m losing weight every day, but I’m super excited to see the difference on the scans. I think that is going to tell a whole new story of my improved health!

Now to find a place to store them between now and then. I’ll be making some other DIY things for the wedding too. Check back for an update on what those may be. If you, too, are inspired by lovely vintage pieces, be it a piece of jewelry, a vase or a china pattern, I think you’ll like what I’m working on!

Use Mason Jars with pretty ribbon as centerpiece vases.Use vintage candy jars that you can find at thrift stores or garage sales for a Candy Bar at a wedding or your next vintage themed event.